HST 102 Lecture 21: Day 21 - Over There

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Day 21 - Over There
Monday, April 10, 2017 10:35 AM
Vietnam and the Cold War in the 1960s
Previously on American Since 1865
• Cold War Emerges
• 1940s: "Containment" Strategy
• Fear of atomic warfare and the Soviet threat
Part I: Evolution of Containment
• Cold War in the 1950s
○ President Dwight Eisenhower (1953 -1961) hardens foreign policy
○ Led by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles:
§ "Massive Retaliation": Threat of nuclear annihilation for any act of
communist aggression
§ Strengthen the nuclear arsenal
§ "Brinksmanship": Refusal to compromise or back down in a crisis
• Domino Theory
○ Eisenhower popularizes the "Domino Theory" in 1954:
§ US must support neighbors of Communist states
§ Collapse of weaker nations can collapse US
§ Southeast Asia is a major example
• International Developments (Part I)
○ 1940s: US supports France to stop Vietnamese independence movement
○ China supports Communist insurgency led by Ho Chi Minh
○ 1950s: US funds most of the French war effort
○ 1954 Geneva Accords:
§ Vietnamese independence
§ Split into North (Communist-Led) and South (ant-iCommunist)
Vietnam
○ US gives support and training to South Vietnamese military
• International Developments (Part II)
○ New Developments Closer to home
○ Revolutionary forces in Cuba take control in 1959
○ Fidel Castro and Eisenhower in a political standoff
○ Castro increasingly embraces Soviets
○ Castro seizes North American-owned companies in Cuba; Eisenhower ○ New Developments Closer to home
○ Revolutionary forces in Cuba take control in 1959
○ Fidel Castro and Eisenhower in a political standoff
○ Castro increasingly embraces Soviets
○ Castro seizes North American-owned companies in Cuba; Eisenhower
ends diplomatic relations
• International Developments (Part III)
○ 1953: Joseph Stalin dies; USSR changes leadership
○ Hope for better relationship with new Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev
○ 1960: USSR shoots down American spy plane, ends chance for peace
○ John F. Kennedy campaigns in 1960 for more aggressive containment
• The Cuban Missile Crisis
○ US stages a failed coup in Cuba
○ October 1962: Spy planes discover Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba
○ JFK blockades Soviet ships
○ The Brink of nuclear war
○ Khrushchev blinks; withdraws the missiles
○ New efforts at de -escalation
Part II: Vietnam
• Escalating Tensions
○ South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem is deeply unpopular
○ 1963: US officials support a coup attempt
○ November 1963: South Vietnamese military assassinates Diem and seizes
control
○ JFK weighs military support, but hopes for a diplomatic solution
• LBJ and Vietnam
○ LBJ escalates support for South Vietnam
○ Fears a parallel to the "Fall of China" in 1949
○ 1964: Increases military commitments
○ Fighting two fronts:
§ North Vietnam (NVA)
§ North Vietnamese loyalists inside of South Vietnam (NLF)
• The Gulf of Tonkin
○ Summer 1964: US Naval escorts ships near North Vietnamese shores
○ August: North Vietnamese patrol boats attack US surveillance ship
○ Two days Later: US destroyer f- believing it is under attack in the Gulf
of Tonkin
○ LBJ orders aerial bombings of North Vietnamese military targets
○ Asks Congress for power to assist American allies in Southeast Asia
• Escalation
○ March 1965: 100,000 American troops in Vietnam
○ Massive aerial bombing campa